When Cassie told me that she was learning to keyboard with her new casio lighted keyboard I thought she was talking about learning how to type on a computer keyboard! I remember when I was a kid in school, we learned to type on typewriters. Nowadays the schools teach the kids how to “keyboard.” Naturally I thought she was talking about typing! I was really surprised when she told me that she was talking about music! When I was a kid, we called it an electric organ!
Labor Day Weekend
Well the first week of school is over and the kids have a 3 day weekend. They were all happy with the teachers they got and the friends that they had in their rooms. Only one of them came home mad. That was my youngest son, the angry child anyway. He’s the one that always finds something to complain about. His major complaint……….the sun comes in his room after lunch and is right in his eyes. Guess he had to find something to gripe about. Oh well, such is life in my house with me and my three.
I have always wanted a pretty smile
Tax Free Shopping
Once a year, Tennessee and a couple other states give the families a break and declare the first weekend in August is Tax Free Shopping. That means all the clothes, shoes, computers and school supplies are able to be bought without having to pay the sales tax. That is a huge savings when you can put off buying those things until this particular weekend and then buy things you need. A lot of stores have extra sale prices, too. Even people who aren’t going back to school save money when they buy clothes and shoes during this weekend! Smart time to shop!
Orange Has No Rhyme
Actually, if you do a search on the internet you can find the answer really fast. Plus there are about 22 other words that don’t have a rhyme. So there’s a little trivia for you.
Motorcycle run for a good cause
Motorcycle run for an elementary school is such a great cause. People used to look down on bikers for so long, but the one thing that they could never say, is that bikers don’t care about their community. Every year all over the country, these wonderful people have motorcycle runs that benefit children in many different areas. Most times it is a toy run for Christmas toys for underprivileged children, but sometimes they do them for other things like raising funds for schools. I think it is awesome that they put forth not only their time organizing such events, but their money as well.
Of course they get to do the one thing they love the most and that is ride their motorcycles on a nice long drive. Usually there is a concert of local talent at the park or area where the ride ends. You can usually buy various items fro local vendors as well. The vendors even donate a large portion of their sales to the charity to help raise as much as possible. I have been to a few of these.
Everyone loves music
Everyone loves music, but children are especially drawn to it. They love to dance and sing and do it often and loudly. If you have children, you already know this. They start with the lullabyes we sing them and move on to the preschool songs we play them and that they hear on preschool TV shows like Jacks Big Music show and the Wiggles are excellent examples.
Encouraging music in your children will help them developmentally. Children who play and sing regularly are more inclined to do better in school. They read better, are better at math and science and generally get along better with other children. They are much more likely to go to college as well.
As a parent we begin teaching our children long before they ever reach a classroom. We teach them their first language and many times their second one as well in multilingual households. Giving them a wide variety of musical genres is great for them. Whether you are playing music in the car or as you clean your house, they watch, listen and learn from everything you do. Having them take music classes at some point in their childhood is a phenomenal way to assure that they will be successful in life as musically oriented children tend to make better life choices later on.
When you choose and instrument for your child, take them to a music store with instructors and let the kids play with a few instruments to see what they like the most. This will let you know exactly where their interests lie and just what they can actually handle at their given age. There are certain instruments that will be too heavy for them, or for their small hands to handle. Also, there are a lot of instruments that have “child size” for those little guys to actually be able to learn on and play with proficiency. Violins are a perfect example of that. They come in really small sizes that are perfect for little fingers to play.
The violin is not easy to learn though. At least not as easy as learning the guitar, because drawing the bow across the strings is more difficult than plucking or strumming the strings is. Piano is a common instrument for children to begin learning to play, however if you don’t have one at home and can’t afford to buy one for them to practice on, you probably should choose something else. Learning to play an instrument requires lots and LOTS of practice.
Most schools have music class and usually the children learn how to play the recorder at some point, but it is not the same as private lessons. They do not get the one on one attention in a school classroom as they do from a private instructor. Add to that the music teachers in the school do not teach a variety of instruments either. It is very basic and only teaches them about music in general. Bear this in mind when you make your decision on whether or not to have them take lessons.
School project
Some school projects are a lot of fun and some, not so much. Today we have to work on the boy’s science project and it isn’t even an interesting one. It is more of a report and less of an actual project. Oh I know that they can’t all be fun, but when it comes to science, they should be. It engages the children’s imagination and allows for more critical thinking that way. Not to worry though, it will be done and it will be good, but it will be very very boring.
Common core
I really don’t like the new common core curriculum they have for the kindergarten and first grades now. Even with preschool, the children are ill equipped to handle this much work this soon. Since each child moves at their own pace in the beginning, many are just left behind and have to repeat the grade. This is really not good for self esteem at such a tender age. Kindergarten is to prepare children for school by having them in a full day agenda with all of the normal school activities. I am seriously disappointed in the school board for allowing this. You wouldn’t believe how many of the kinder’s are being held back. smh…
Ah the joys of parenthood
While having children is a lot of fun and very rewarding, every now and then all you can do is shake your head. Kids tend to do stupid things, but my son just won the award for the dumbest thing for the year. Maybe the dumbest thing ever. He actually took his pocket knife to school. Grrrrr….he said he forgot it was in the back pack, but seriously, he should have checked his stuff before he walked out the door. Fortunately he goes to a school that knows him well and was understanding. I am happy that they did not enforce the “no tolerance” rule. He is happy that he didn’t end up in juvenile court. Lord save me from my kids! smh….